Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc. (VCDL)

Virginia Citizens Defense League, Inc.
PO. Box 513, Newington, VA 22122 • 804-639-0600 • 703-372-3285 • 757-271-3705 • 540-446-5783

10/06/09 - VCDL Update 10/6/09 - Part 1

Abbreviations used in VA-ALERT: http://www.vcdl.org/help/abbr.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- VCDL Update 10/6/09 - "When you sit down to negotiate on what you already have, you lose." =97Rep. Marie Parente 1. VCDL President to speak at Liberty Gun Rights Symposium 2. Alexandria drops illegal ordinances, just as a VCDL member prepares to sue 3. Powhatan Wine Festival drops it's "No Guns" policy thanks to member Ed Levine 4. Another VA-ALERT reader shares his open carry experience 5. Citizens bring truth to Virgina Tech gun panel 6. Gun lobbyists pick candidates - Saxman endorses Pollard! 7. Who needs a gun at the Springfield mall? 8. SCOTUS to hear 2nd amendment incorporation case 9. Who needs a gun in the home at 7:30AM? 10. How DC residents can buy guns without registration 11. Who needs a gun in church? 12. LTE: Consider the consequences of using a firearm 13. Who needs a gun in the shower? 14. Gun advocates predict drop in crime if gun ban is lifted 15. Gray Column: Guns on trains not a good idea 16. Andrew Dysart replied to a thread on Facebook 17. Gary Kleck responds to Chet Szymecki about an anti-gun "study" 18. AZ: Valley bars, eateries get ready for gun-toting patrons 19. After Arizona, Virginia likely next to repeal ban on concealed carry in restaurants 20. Women buying guns like never before 21. The true citizen soldier 22. Alamogordo police pay $21,000 to settle open carry lawsuit 23. Surprise winner of Obama stimulus spending: gun industry 24. Growing number of Detroit pastors wear handguns in pulpit 25. Open house at G3 Security Group ************************************************** 1. VCDL President to speak at Liberty Gun Rights Symposium ************************************************** http://tinyurl.com/y8jwvne 2009 Gun Rights Symposium Hosted by Liberty University School of Law Sponsored by the Federalist Society Date: Friday, Oct.16th Time: 2:30 - 4:00 p.m. Location: Liberty University School of Law / Supreme Court Room Address: 1971 University Blvd. Lynchburg, VA 24502 On Friday, Oct. 16th, a panel of gun rights experts will discuss the current state of 2nd Amendment & Concealed Carry rights in the state of Virginia. The event is open to law students, undergraduate students, and the community. Food will be provided. Robert Dowlut is Chief Counsel for the NRA and a member of the D.C. Bar. Mr. Dowlut is currently involved with numerous cases involving fallout from the Supreme Court's recent decision in D.C. v. Heller, 544 U.S. (2008) including a suit against the City of Chicago. Philip Van Cleave is the President of the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL). He is a leading advocate for the right to carry concealed firearms in the state of Virginia and recently appeared on the TV Show 60 Minutes. To RSVP or for more information, please contact Jeremy Morris at jrmorris2*= liberty.edu Please include this link in your email. It's a link on Facebook to confirm they are coming. They just need to sign into Facebook and paste this link in their browser. http://tinyurl.com/y8jwvne If they don't have Facebook, they can email me and RSVP that way. However, Facebook is preferable. Feel free to circulate this to affiliate groups that might also wish to promote this event. We have NO limit on the number of guests, so please feel free to invite everyone. ************************************************** 2. Alexandria drops illegal ordinances, just as a VCDL member prepares = to sue ************************************************** I talked to the Alexandria City Attorney in early summer and told him that Alexandria had some preempted firearms ordinances on the books and that the City needed to remove them. I was told that the City Council was on hiatus over the summer, but that the City Attorney would bring the issue up when they reconvened. Meanwhile VCDL member Ed Levine, using the services of VCDL member and = attorney Mark Matthews, was preparing a lawsuit over that same issue. = I told Ed that the City Attorney was planning on bringing up the illegal ordinances and they should get struck off the books. However, = it seemed prudent for Ed to proceed just in case Alexandria decided to = play games. As it turned out, and to the City's credit, they indeed had just voted = to remove the offending ordinances as Mark was getting some FOIA information together for the suit. Thanks to Ed and Mark for being in a quick fall back position had it been needed. Ed has been a busy boy - see item #3, next. So another set of bad ordinances are gone. VCDL is on the lookout for = more, so if your locality has any illegal gun ordinances, please get in touch with us. ************************************************** 3. Powhatan Wine Festival drops it's "No Guns" policy thanks to member = Ed Levine ************************************************** Ed Levine noticed that the Powhatan Festival of the Grape rules had a "no guns" policy. As it turns out this was something I thought I had fixed a few years ago, but alas, it was back. Ed got in touch with the festival administration and after seeing the state's preemption laws, they agreed to drop the "no guns" rule. However, their tickets had already been printed up with that wording, but they fixed their web site with the change. Good work, Ed! Here is the event ticket information, for those who might like to go on October 24th: http://www.powhatanwinefestival.com/tickets.htm ************************************************** 4. Another VA-ALERT reader shares his open carry experience ************************************************** A VCDL member doing some proselytizing. ;-) Hawk Scarbrough emailed me this: Phillip, Hey, I'm a pro gun missionary too. You know about my dentist (I think). To recap, my dentist of long standing is/was a yuppie type living in a nice neighborhood who had never fired a gun in his life, however he was always interested in the .45s I wore each time I had an = appointment (he told everyone it was to insure good service : )). Eventually he asked me if I would teach him to shoot, which of course I was happy to do. Having good eyes, steady hands and intense concentration, he became an excellent shot. Then I taught his father, a former resident of Castro's Cuba, next I taught the majority of his office staff, including another dentist. One of these ladies took her oath and became an American citizen (formerly from a South American dictatorship). She then bought a handgun a few days later. As a side comment, my dentist preferred shooting my .22s until he discovered the = laser site on my .45. The look on his face as he destroyed the center of the target at 25 feet is one I will never forget. I guess you could = describe it as "a kid in a candy shop" A few months ago I met a group of British visitors to the U.S. They too were fascinated by the fact I was carrying my favored caliber of sidearm. They asked many questions about the laws here and commented with some irritation about the laws in their own country. I finally asked them if they would be interested in learning to shoot. You would = have thought I had offered them a handfull of gold coins. I forgot to mention that two of the six Brits were women quite some years older than my 54. They would have looked perfect in a British tea scene in a = movie. Their husbands, a daughter and a son (a little younger than me) = and their American host, completed the group. To make a long story short, they were estatic over their experience. They said it was the highlight of their trip to this country. ************************************************** 5. Citizens bring truth to Virgina Tech gun panel ************************************************** The presence of members of the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus and the VCDL helped to turn this event into what it should have been all along. A debate about guns on campus. http://tinyurl.com/y9pkgvq www.examiner.com David Codrea September 26, 2009 There was a fitting response to the stacked panel at Virginia Tech that we talked about on Wednesday. People who actually knew what they were talking about showed up: The group Students for Concealed Carry on Campus showed up as well as members of the Virginia Citizens Defense League. This was supposed to be a discussion on violence prevention but it quickly turned into a gun debate. Good. That sure beats the one-sided propaganda event the gun grabbers had planned. And great. Citizens who are mindful of their unalienable right to keep = and bear arms are watchful and at the ready, at least in Virginia, to ensure the truth will be heard. They deserve our thanks, and more importantly, our commitment to emulate their example whenever the need arises in our communities. Additional references: http://concealedcampus.org/ http://www.vcdl.org/ ************************************************** 6. Gun lobbyists pick candidates - Saxman endorses Pollard! ************************************************** GOA Director Larry Pratt defends candidate Catherine Crabill while members of the VA GOP remain undecided. http://tinyurl.com/l2mkak www.northernnecknews.com By Colston Newton A national gun rights organization was as good as its executive director's word when it threw its support to GOP House of Delegates nominee Catherine Crabill last week. Gun Owners of America's executive = director, Larry Pratt, had come to a Northumberland County Republican County Committee meeting Sept. 10 and voiced his support for Crabill. A week later, his organization officially came on board. Pratt, who came from Springfield to support Crabill , told the crowd that Crabill's now-famous "ballot box/bullet box" speech inspired his organization and that the state GOP, which has shunned Crabill, would pay a price if it didn't reverse itself and help her. Unless the state = party switched and came to Crabill's aid, Pratt said his organization would write its members telling them not to send their donations to the state party or statewide candidates but to Crabill. Within a week, Pratt and the GOA had made good on his promise. Pratt sent a fund-raising alert letter sent to GOA's Virginia members, = entitled "Candidate Under Fire for Being Pro-Second Amendment", urged that credit-card contributions be sent to Crabill through her campaign's Internet Website, Crabill's campaign announced Thursday. The campaign noted that contributions had already started flowing in. In his letter, Pratt wrote, Crabill is being condemned for this statement: We have the opportunity to fight this at the ballot box before we have to resort to the bullet box and asked the recipients Who would object to that besides an anti-gunner?, according to Crabill's campaign. At the Sept. 10 meeting attended by Pratt, there was ample room for conflict since it was attended by state GOP chairman Pat Mullins, who, = along with the party's three statewide candidates, recently repudiated = Crabill, and the hall was full of Crabill supporters and Crabill herself was there. For all the potential for conflict, the local Republicans' ire at the state leaders didn't emerge until after Mullins had left. Only Ken Smith managed to get in a confrontational question when he asked Mullins if any of the state leaders had actually spoken with Crabill before distancing themselves from her. No, Mullins answered. When Patrick O'Brien asked if the local leadership had been given a heads up before the leaders came out against Crabill, Mullins said, I'd rather not talk about it. It doesn't do us or Catherine any good. Pratt took the floor in Crabill' favor after Mullions had left. 99th District GOP chairman Allen Webb also rose in Crabill's defense. He said he was offended that the statewide people had dumped Crabill without notifying local leaders such as himself. Don't ever do this again, he said. Don't tread on me. Webb said that he would continue to = support Crabill. The nominee is the nominee, he said. Crabill herself was moved almost to tears as she thanked the audience for standing by her. She wasn't backing off from her controversial comments, either. She noted that Mullins himself had used the Patrick Henry speech she was using when she made the remarks and, saying she had received ugly , threatening emails after her speech became widely known, asked, Is the crime mine or those who incite crime against me and my family. Crabill wasn't the only one getting support last week. Incumbent delegate Albert C. Pollard, Jr., got the endorsement of a Republican lawmaker Chris Saxman of Staunton. Del. Saxman said, In an era when partisanship has created a hostile and unproductive political environment, political leaders must be willing to work with each other every year - elections included. Albert truly exemplifies the bi-partisanship and independence that we should expect from our leaders in Richmond. Having worked with Albert, = he is clearly the best candidate for Delegate in the 99th district. We = don't agree on everything, but that hasn't stopped us from working together on the things we do agree on. The National Rifle Association, which the Gun Owners of America views as weak in its protection of gun owners' rights, has endorsed Pollard in the past but has not made an endorsement so far this election. It is expected to do so next week according to informed sources. ************************************************** 7. Who needs a gun at the Springfield mall? ************************************************** http://tinyurl.com/yd6j33j www.washingtonpost.com Tom Jackman September 30, 2009 Fairfax Man Was Robbed, Stabbed in Springfield Mall A Fairfax County man was robbed and then stabbed inside Springfield Mall on Tuesday night, Fairfax police said Wednesday, but his injuries = were not life-threatening. Police said the man, who lives in the Springfield area, was sitting on = a bench outside a store in the mall about 9:20 p.m. when he was approached by two men who demanded his wallet. The man handed over the = wallet, and one of the suspects stabbed the man in the upper body. The = victim was taken to Inova Fairfax Hospital. The man did not know his attackers, Officer Don Gothardt said, and investigators do not think the attack was gang-related. The suspects were described as a thin white man and a thin black man, both in their = 20s and wearing black clothing. Springfield Mall has suffered occasional spasms of violence, including = the abduction last year of a woman from the mall parking lot, who was then driven to Prince William County and killed when her car crashed into a tree. One of her abductors also died and the other, Keith Baskerville, is awaiting trial in Prince William on a charge of first- degree murder. ************************************************** 8. SCOTUS to hear 2nd amendment incorporation case ************************************************** All eyes will be on the SCOTUS as they hear challenges to Chicago's outright handgun ban. The Brady Campaign is already signaling that they are expecting to lose this battle by minimizing any such ruling in advance in an email to their members. http://tinyurl.com/yemevwu www.scotusblog.com Court to rule on gun rights, terrorism law SNIP Taking on a major new constitutional dispute over gun rights, the Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to decide whether to apply the Second Amendment to state, county and city government laws. In another major case among ten new grants, the Court said it will rule on the constitutionality of one of the government's most-used legal weapons in the war on terrorism a law that outlaws material support = to terrorist groups. The Court had three cases from which to choose on the Second Amendment = issue two cases involving a Chicago gun ban, and one case on a New York ban on a martial-arts weapon. It chose one of the Chicago cases McDonald v. Chicago (08-1521) a case brought to it by Alan Gura, the Alexandria, VA. lawyer who won the 2008 decision for the first time recognizing a constitutional right to have a gun for personal use, at least in self-defense in the home (District of Columbia v. Heller). A = second appeal on the Chicago dispute had been filed by the National Rifle Association (NRA v. Chicago, 08-1497). Presumably, the Court will hold onto that case until it decides McDonald; the same is likely = for the New York case, Maloney v. Rice (08-1592) a case in which Justice Sonia Sotomayor had participated when she was a judge on the Second Circuit Court. ---------- (http://tinyurl.com/ye84p93) www.latimes.com By David G. Savage September 30, 2009 The justices' ruling on whether state and local laws are subject to the 2nd Amendment could open the door to legal challenges nationwide. The ruling on a Chicago handgun ban is expected by summer. The Supreme Court set the stage for a historic ruling on gun rights and the 2nd Amendment by agreeing today to hear a challenge to Chicago's ban on handguns. At issue is whether state and local gun-control ordinances can be struck down as violating the "right to keep and bear arms" in the 2nd Amendment. A ruling on the issue, due by next summer, could open the door to legal challenges to various gun control measures in cities and states across the nation. The case also will decide whether the 2nd Amendment protects a broad constitutional right, similar to the 1st Amendment's right to free speech or the 4th Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches = and seizures. In the past, the Supreme Court had given short shrift to the 2nd Amendment by saying it applied only to national laws and that its aim was to preserve "well-regulated militias." This quite narrow view of the amendment conflicted with the views of most Americans, according to opinion polls. Last year, the court in a 5-4 decision breathed new life into the amendment by ruling that it protected an individual's right to have a handgun at home for self-defense. The decision in District of Columbia = vs. Heller struck down a local ban on handguns. But since the nation's capital is a federal enclave, the court did not = reconsider its 19th century rulings that said the 2nd Amendment applied only to federal laws and restrictions. Since then, several gun owners have filed new constitutional challenges in several cities, including Chicago and the nearby Village = of Oak Park. They lost when judges there said they were bound by the high court's earlier rulings. But the Supreme Court today said it had voted to hear the appeals from = gun owners in Chicago and Oak Park and to decide whether the 2nd Amendment restricts local and state laws as well as national measures. Lawyers for the gun owners argued that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" set out in the 2nd Amendment is "incorporated" into the 14th Amendment and thereby applies to states and localities. Lawyers on both sides of the dispute say the gun-rights case revives a = once-fierce debate over how to read the Bill of Rights. Since the 1st Amendment begins with the words, "Congress shall make no = law respecting" such matters as an "establishment of religion" or "abridging the freedom of speech," it was understood originally to limit only Congress and the national government. The same was true of the other parts of Bill of Rights. After the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was added to the Constitution, = and it says a state may not "abridge the privileges and immunities" of = citizens nor deprive any person of "liberty . . . without due process of law." In the mid-20th century, the Supreme Court decided, in a step-by- process, that such fundamental rights as the freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion and the freedom from "unreasonable searches" = are part of the "liberty" protected by 14th Amendment. These rulings permit constitutional challenges to state and local laws. The 2nd Amendment was all but ignored by the Court until recently. In their appeal, lawyers for the gun owners say the court should rule either that the right "to keep and bear arms" is a "privilege" of citizenship or is part of the "liberty" protected by the 14th Amendment. Lawyers for Chicago had urged the court to reject the appeal. They said that easily concealed handguns pose a special danger in cities. "Homicides are most often committed with guns, especially handguns," they said, citing a Justice Department study. The city also said that while nearly all handguns are illegal, residents are permitted to have = rifles or shotguns at home for self-defense. It is not clear whether the court will rule squarely on whether the Chicago ordinance is constitutional. Lawyers for the city proposed that if the justices take up the issue, they rule only on whether the ordinance can be challenged under the 2nd Amendment, and then send the = dispute back to Chicago for a trial. The court said it will set arguments in the Chicago cases for January or February. The cases is McDonald vs. Chicago. ************************************************** 9. Who needs a gun in the home at 7:30AM? ************************************************** Still don't think you need a gun on you when you answer the door in the morning? http://tinyurl.com/yesqzsd hamptonroads.com Cindy Clayton September 25, 2009 Police question man after morning home invasion in Portsmouth Police are questioning one person after a home invasion this morning in the 1500 block of Maple Ave., a department spokesman said. A woman was inside her home about 7:30 a.m. when she heard a knock on the door, said Lt. Scott Burke, a police spokesman. When the woman opened the door, two armed men forced their way inside and stole an unknown amount of property. The woman wasn't hurt, Burke said. After the robbery, the men fled in a car and the woman called police, Burke said. A Portsmouth officer who had just finished a night shift was on his way home in his own car when he heard a police radio message about the = crime, Burke said. The officer spotted the vehicle and followed it. The vehicle headed to South Norfolk while the officer communicated by radio with other officers from Portsmouth, Norfolk and Chesapeake, Burke said. A short while later, a Norfolk officer located and stopped the vehicle = and detained the driver, Burke said. ************************************************** 10. How DC residents can buy guns without registration ************************************************** In spite of this "loophole", the odds of a D.C. citizen being allowed to have a gun for self defense is just slightly better than that of winning the lottery. http://tinyurl.com/yasuwah www.examiner.com Mike Stollenwerk September 24, 2009 SNIP Last February I explained how, counter intuitively, the DC City Council's 2008 action to repeal the DC Police Chief's power to issue handgun carry permits made it possible for DC residents to apply by mail for handgun carry permits from Pennsylvania Sheriffs Such applications can be made by filling out a simple form, no fingerprints, social security numbers, or training required. And these permits are accepted by many states too. But while applying for gun carry permits is now easy for DC residents, = DC's onerous gun registration laws makes it hard to acquire a gun. If = you don't believe me, read Christian Davenport's recent article in the = Washington Post about his gun acquisition odyssey as a DC resident. .. . . So how can DC residents legally acquire guns without jumping through all the hoops erected by the DC City Council? It turns out it's pretty simple - you must either maintain a second residence in another = state, temporarily become a "resident" of another state, or inherit the firearm(s) by bequest or intestate succession. But just don't bring your gun into DC unless you go through all the registration steps. . . . ************************************************** 11. Who needs a gun in church? ************************************************** Deborah Jane Anderson emailed me this: -- From today's Washington Post: Who needs a gun in church? You -- even = IF your church has armed security! http://tinyurl.com/yfx9omp www.washingtonpost.com William Wan September 30, 2009 Sense of Sanctuary Lost As Church Attacks Spike The youth choir belted out "O Happy Day" as folks trickled in through the church doors. Few noticed the accountant sitting in the back pew, his eyes flickering over each latecomer. In one hand, he held a Bible. In the other, tucked inside his coat pocket, he gripped a .38 caliber revolver. He had come to People's Community Baptist Church in Silver Spring looking for his estranged wife. And once she arrived and began arguing = with him outside, the Bible would be forgotten. The gun would be raised. And in a matter of seconds, the congregation's sense of sanctuary would be shattered. What happened that Sunday morning at People's Church was just one in a = string of fatal shootings at houses of worship across the country. The = most high-profile incidents -- a Kansas abortion doctor gunned down in = May, an Illinois pastor shot mid-sermon in March, a Tennessee church attacked during a children's play in 2008 -- have begun to alter the way many churches operate. Sanctuaries that once left their doors open all day now employ armed guards, off-duty police officers, surveillance cameras and even undercover plainclothes guards who mingle with the congregation. A small cottage industry of faith-specialized security firms has sprung up almost overnight, offering nervous churches, synagogues and mosques vulnerability assessments, security systems and emergency planning. Many were already on alert for the kind of crimes that have plagued religious institutions for years: churches being burned, synagogues and mosques being desecrated. People's Church, in fact, had a security plan in place for its 3,000- member congregation that included off-duty officers hired for traffic and protection. But none of it stopped Kevin Kelly from firing five bullets into Patricia Simmons Kelly's chest Feb. 22. And now, like other places of worship shaken by violence, its members are grappling with deep wounds -- psychological and spiritual -- that have lingered long after the police cars and ambulances pulled away. 'Will I Be Able to Save Her?' Nathaniel Fuller sees the shooting today as clearly as he did seven months ago. At the time, it seemed like fate that Fuller, a doctor with emergency room experience, had arrived late to church. From across the parking lot, he saw Patricia Kelly talking to her husband, who had just moved out of their home in Rockville. Tight finances had strained their marriage of nine years, court testimony would later reveal, and Kevin Kelly, 53, suspected there was = another man, something Patricia's family adamantly denies. All of it led to their argument in the parking lot -- and then gunshots. In the seconds that followed, an off-duty police officer subdued Kevin = while Fuller ran to help Patricia. He heard her take what sounded like = three shallow, fading breaths. As he began performing CPR, the doctor silently asked God: "Will this be the difference? Will I be able to save her?" Months later -- long after the ambulance rushed her to a hospital, long after the 52-year-old legal secretary was pronounced dead -- Fuller found himself constantly replaying this scene in his head. He had lost patients before, but this was different. He had known this woman, exchanged greetings with her at services for years before her blood came to be smeared on his hands, mouth and suit. Plagued by the vision, Fuller asked God to restore peace at his church = and in his heart. But just as peace seemed within grasp, Kelly's trial = and conviction this month and his approaching sentencing this week have stirred everything back up. The doctor still doesn't understand why God let Patricia die, why He had placed Fuller so nearby if not to save her. "I've prayed and asked," Fuller said. "I haven't received an answer yet. I don't know if I ever will." 'We Lost Our Innocence' Although no federal agency or law enforcement group keeps track of killings at houses of worship, some people recording cases on their own believe that there has been a disturbing uptick in recent years. One of those keeping count is Carl Chinn, who started compiling a database of such attacks shortly after a gunman burst into the Christian organization Focus on the Family where he was working in 1996 and took hostages. Eleven years later, Chinn was working security = for the New Life Church in Colorado when another gunman appeared and killed two people. By Chinn's count, fatal attacks at houses of worship have grown from a = handful a decade ago to at least 32 last year -- a number that includes people killed inside the buildings as well as homicides that take place on church steps and in parking lots. But he acknowledges that it's become easier to track police reports and news stories online in recent years, which could partly account for the perceived increase. Randy McAlister, a police sergeant in Minnesota doing similar research = at Concordia University, also thinks church violence is increasing and = likens it to school shootings a decade ago: on its way to becoming a Continued ...